2017 Spring Budget...

We should all be blessed we have Conservative & Unionist Party chancellor and that Labour ramble are years away from being a serious threat to our nation's well being.

Could raising NIC be a reason/excuse to call a general election? They have broken an election promise, again.

 

As I recall, that is what happen with Brown, he thought he didnt need one, but later realised his Government needed a mandate.

I don't know whether you've heard but there was a vote last about leaving the eu which has huge ramifications to the uk economy. Hammond is trying to grab some money for a war chest for when we leave. The whole previous mandate is more or less null and void in my eyes after that. And if you're a labour supporter you don't want a snap election as it could quite literally mean the end of your party.

The surprise is that he's gone for money from what would likely be a fairly solid Tory voter.

They haven't broken an election promise. The small print stated that Class 1 would not be raised, there was no promise about Class 4.

Complete rubbish. The 2015 Conservative party, general election manifesto makes no mention of the class of NI. It ONLY states:

We will not raise VAT, National Insurance contributions or Income Tax.

The comments that this only covered class 1 NI is due to the legislation the then government pushed through the commons, but does not change the fact their manifesto categorically, did not state only certain NI will not be raised.

Ill state it again as people need to know this. The Conservative party Manifesto for the 2015 General election stated:

We will not raise VAT, National Insurance contributions or Income Tax.

Commit to no increases in VAT, National Insurance contributions or Income Tax..

..we can commit to no increases in VAT, Income Tax or National Insurance.

The conservative party HAS breached its own pledge and they are using weasel words in order to try and not concede this fact.

The surprise is that he's gone for money from what would likely be a fairly solid Tory voter.

The UK has little chance of negotiating a good (or any) trade deal in 18 to 24 months from Article 50. The UK is ill-ready to negotiate a deal, the White Paper was just waffle recycled from various Leave documents ('global Britain' was lifted wholesale from the UKIP leave.eu campaign document).

May and her 3 Brexiteers have staked in early that no deal is a clear possibility, and Davis has asked his Whitehall troops to prepare for as much. That's since been independently confirmed by early insights into the tariff schedule Whitehall is busy preparing.

So the UK will either get a poor deal or no deal, meaning a messy exit landing hard onto the WTO floor, and blaming the EU/media/remainers for it.

Whence the only viable option medium- to long-term is the low tax, small government (a.k.a. tax haven) one. But low tax doesn't mean no tax. In ToryBrexitland, it means low business taxes and high-ish personal taxes, particularly indirect ones (as readily observable in e.g. Singapore, whence the comparisons with that economy).

Meet here again in 2020 for the autopsy in hindsight

 

The surprise is that he's gone for money from what would likely be a fairly solid Tory voter.

It's not just the traditional Tory voters who are affected. Self employment has grown massively over the past few years due to the number of unemployed trying to start their own small business and the growth of 'employed' self employed, who work for big companies who then don't have to pay sick pay, holiday pay, pensions etc. In other words the vulnerable low paid.

These are the ones I feel sorry for.

What about getting the money off the companies rather than the low paid workers.

It's not just the traditional Tory voters who are affected. Self employment has grown massively over the past few years due to the number of unemployed trying to start their own small business and the growth of 'employed' self employed, who work for big companies who then don't have to pay sick pay, holiday pay, pensions etc. In other words the vulnerable low paid.

 

These are the ones I feel sorry for.

 

What about getting the money off the companies rather than the low paid workers.

It's only middle to high earners who will be adversely affected.

As well as NI class 4 going up NI class 2 has been zeroed out, so you have to have a profit of at least 17k to end up paying even a little bit more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39208859

Obviously people making £17k are not rich, but you have to be making a lot more than that to take a noticeable hit.

It's only middle to high earners who will be adversely affected.

As well as NI class 4 going up NI class 2 has been zeroed out, so you have to have a profit of at least 17k to end up paying even a little bit more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39208859

Obviously people making £17k are not rich, but you have to be making a lot more than that to take a noticeable hit.

Of more concern to them is going to be the hit on dividends - 5k dropped down to 2k before div income gets taxed...

The self employed have got clobbered.

 

When you think that many of those will be small start ups, 'employed' self employed (people like Uber drivers,) 0 hours contract workers, etc it hardly seems fair, when the employers who don't have to provide them with sick pay, holiday pay, pensions, etc get another cut in Corporation tax.

Uber drivers and zero hours contract workers can still argue that they are "workers" and therefore entitled to employee rights such as sick pay and holiday pay.

Currently it's a tax and legal minefield having so many categories of worker.

At the moment too many people are classed as self employed when they should be classed as employees but with Employer's National Insurance at 12.8% there is every incentive for employers/businesses etc to want to engage self employed people instead.

Unless this tax on providing employment is radically reduced, or expanded to include those who engage self employed people (never) then there will always be an incentive for employers to seek to re-classify employees as self-employed. A 1% increase in the class 4 NIC isn't going to combat this.

Of more concern to them is going to be the hit on dividends - 5k dropped down to 2k before div income gets taxed...

Yes. A good way I would think of deterring people from investing their money and effort trying to build or grow a business.

I think you over estimate my influence with the Nuclear Energy Authority.

 

Seriously, I am no expert on nuclear power, any more than the average engineer.

I am just going by the mistakes at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima.

The first two were human error, the other a natural disaster.

 

They are not like traditional powered plant, they do not burn out.

The reaction continues uncontrolled.

 

The basic rule of any machine is, 'do not start it until you know how to stop it'.

 

We do not know how to stop and out of control nuclear reactor, to my knowledge at any rate.

I'd have assumed an engineer would have known that the first two were at least equally due to engineering failures as well... it's rarely that clear cut.